My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coatsimultaneously(同时地). It was hanging on arack(齿条,行李架)at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass, crammed in withshoddy(假冒的,劣质的)trench coats and anassortment(分类,混合物)of sad, woolen overcoats -- a rose among thorns.
While the other coatsdrooped(下垂,消沉), this one looked as if it were holding itself up. The thick, black wool of the double-breastedchesterfield(长大衣)was soft and unworn, as though it had been preserved inmothballs(卫生球)for years in dead old Uncle Henry's steamer trunk. The coat had a black velvet collar, beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and an unbelievable price of $28. We looked at each other, saying nothing, but John's eyes gleamed. Dark, woolen topcoats were popular just then with teenage boys, but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that touch of classic elegance from abygone(过去的)era.
John slid his arms down into the heavysatin(缎子)lining of the sleeves and buttoned the coat. He turned from side to side, eyeing himself in the mirror with a serious, studied expression that soon changed into a smile. The fit was perfect.
John wore the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a biggrin(露齿笑). "Ho. did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They loved it," he said, carefully folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. I started calling him "Lord Chesterfield" and "The Great Gatsby."
Over the next few weeks, a change came over John. Agreement replacedcontrariness(反对,矛盾), quiet, reasoned discussion replaced argument. He became more judicious, more mannerly, more thoughtful, eager to please. “Good dinner, Mom," he would say every evening.
He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him on theniceties(精密,美好)of behaviour; without a word of objection, he would carry in wood for the stove. One day when I suggested that he might start on homework before dinner, John -- a veteranprocrastinator(拖拉者)– said, “You’re right. I guess I will.
When I mentioned this incident to one of his teachers and remarked that I didn't know what caused the changes, she said laughing. "It must be his coat!" Another teacher told him she was giving him a good mark not only because he had earned it but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend who had not seen our children in a long time, “Could this be John?" he asked, looking up to John's new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never mistake a person's clothes for the real person within them. But there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see, for practising standards of excellence in though, speech, and behaviour, and for matching what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
Sometimes, watching Johnleave for(动身去)school, I've remembered with a keen sting what it felt like to be in the eighth grade -- a time when it was as easy to try on different approaches to life as it was to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vastpanorama(全景,全貌)where all the doors are open. And if I were there right now, I would picture myself walking through those doors wearing my wonderful, magical coat.
考研英语考前写作必备手册第三章(二)
考研英语写作常见的中心意思句
考研英语应用文黄金预测报告
考研英语写作常见的解说性句式
考研英语考前写作必备手册第四章(四)
考研英语应用文黄金预测投诉信
考研英语考前写作必备手册第三章(一)
考研英语考前30天狂背作文四
考研英语大作文黄金预测图表作文
考研英语写作常见的开篇句
考研英语应用文写作之介绍信的复习指导
考研英语写作素材The Advantages of Trying New Things
考研英语写作常见的让步句
考研英语写作常见让步法段首句过渡句
考研英语应用文写作之祝贺信的复习指导
考研英语写作大作文之提纲作文的复习指导
考研英语大作文黄金预测主题句作文
考研英语考前写作必备手册第三章(三)
考研英语考前写作必备手册第四章(五)
考研英语大作文黄金预测规定情景作文
考研英语考前写作必备手册第二章(二)
考研英语写作素材Money for the Environment
考研英语写作大作文规定情景作文
考研英语写作常见的转折句
考研英语考前写作必备手册第五章(二)
考研英语考前写作必备手册第四章(九)
文登考研英语连载(七)尝试新事物的好处
考研英语应用文黄金预测咨询信
考研英语应用文写作之申请信的复习指导
考研英语考前写作必备手册第三章(四)
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